White DVD Drive

[GSte]

Am currently planning a new build and have seen some nice white cases..... but I can't seem to find any white DVD drives. Does anyone know if/where I could buy one? Or is the only option to spray a black one yourself?

Thanks

[kompukare]

There must be something but all I know is not to buy this one:
http://www.dabs.com/products/samsung...els--8P36.html
Bought one of those for a Define R4 white but despite the bezels being described as "Black, white, silver", Samsung seem to thing that "computer beige" is white

EDIT: seems the pale colour is not called Ivory on the Amazon listings. Certainly not polar white anyhow.

[KeyboardDemon]

Am currently planning a new build and have seen some nice white cases..... but I can't seem to find any white DVD drives. Does anyone know if/where I could buy one? Or is the only option to spray a black one yourself?

Thanks

Some cases let you take the plate that sits over the 5.25" slot and stick it to the front of your optical drive so that when it's in place it can't be seen, otherwise you should be able to pop the black front section off your drive and spray it without damaging the rest of the drive.

[Agent]

Internal ones are getting hard to get. However, there are loads of external ones!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-SE-2...hite+dvd+drive

[GSte]

Cheers all, I feared as much but thought it worth asking on here.

[herulach]

how random that this was always the opposite way round. I remember dissasembling a drive to spray it black a while ago!

It really isn't that difficult tbf.

[GSte]

What kind of paint should I use? Car spray paint or something else?

[directhex]

Annoyingly, the only company that still seems to be in the 5.25" optical drive face plate business is Lian-Li, who do aluminium covers painted black, red, silver... but not white.

[amjedm]

What about this internal drive - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-24x-...productDetails

Comes with three interchangeable bezels - white, silver and black.

[GSte]

What about this internal drive - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-24x-...productDetails

Comes with three interchangeable bezels - white, silver and black.

This is the one I went for in the end, from Scan. The white bezel was actually pretty much beige *shudder* but I used the silver one and it doesn't look too bad....

[starkyller]

Buy a black one and use vinyl or plastic paint

[RobbieRoy]

I have long found it very frustrating that there is such a small range of colours used for most electronics equipment, consumer or business. My wife and I simply gave up on finding a white bezel flat screen TV a few years back.

[Pob255]

Bit late in reply, but yes white fronted 5.25" optical drives are pretty much gone now, same goes for slot loading 5.25" drives (you can get slim slot loaders but not 5.25" ones)

Spraying the front is pretty simple, pretty much any car spray paint should work.
Acrylic based ones fully cure (fully harden) quickest but tend to be softer and easier to damage, enamel based paints take far longer to fully cure but are more robust.
You can get paint that's specially designed for plastic, but general purpose car paint should be fine as long as the bezel isn't made out of polystyrene. (where you might get issues with solvents eating into the plastic, pretty unlikely)

Eject the tray (poke a paperclip into the small hole on the front of the drive to manually unlock and eject the draw)
Remove the tray front first, normally clipped in, 1 to 3 clips below the tray front holds it on, the tray front then slides up to remove it.
To remove the front bezel of the drive, normally 3 clips, one on each side and one on the bottom, the bezel then swings up to remove it.
Sand the surface down to key it, I'd use fairly fine sand paper/wet&dry paper because you need to keep the paint fairly thin. I'd use 300grit then 600grit and maybe 800grit, wipe down after to remove all dust, tack cloth or rinse it under a tap and wipe it down with kitchen roll.
You probably want to undercoat, keep it light, this should help with paint bonding and the final colour.
Same when painting, thin coats, don't try to make it white in one go, only spray the front not the back.
Depending on the paint and the air conditions, it should be safe to handle after an hour or two but be gentle with it, leave it for at least 24 hours before reassembling.
Spray can acrylic takes about a week to fully cure, enamel takes a month so just be careful about scratching or chipping it.
Remember to mask off the led "lens", normally it's a transparent acrylic insert unless you want to paint over it, also test the eject button before you put the bezel back on, it might get painted stuck, a small amount of wiggle and force should break any paint sticking it, just don't over do the force and snap it off.